CONRAD BLACK

SHAMEometer rating out of 100:
92

Who: Newspaper magnate, freelance Canadian and professional snob.

Once CEO of Hollinger International, Inc. which published major newspapers including The Daily Telegraph (UK), The Chicago Sun Times, The Jerusalem Post, The National Post, and hundreds of community newspapers in North America; and for a spell was the the third biggest newspaper magnate in the world.

In 2003, following investor complaints, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) accused Black and his partners of running a "corporate kleptocracy." Translation: he bilked his investors. Black resigned as CEO and was charged with mail and wire fraud and obstruction of justice. In July 2007, Black was convicted in Illinois U.S. District Court and sentenced to serve 78 months in federal prison, and pay Hollinger $6.1 million plus a fine of $125,000. (Black was found guilty of diverting funds for personal benefit from money due Hollinger International when the company sold certain publishing assets. He also obstructed justice by taking possession of documents to which he was not entitled:)



Shameless:

1) Black remains unrepentant about how he ran Hollinger (into the ground), and denies any wrongdoing on his part. (For more, please see “denial” in the Oxford Dictionary.)

2) Despite being a published writer and former newspaper publisher, Black has sued numerous journalists whose views about him he did not agree with entirely.

3) In 2001, Black renounced his citizenship in the "oppressive little world" of Canada, where he was born, educated and his family prospered. Perhaps owing to a change of heart, Mr. Black has yet to denounce his Order of Canada (or the Canadian government hasn't had the guts to revoke it from a convicted criminal who isn't even a Canadian citizen anymore since he's busy serving time in an American prison ).



Shameless Quotes:
"If saintly men like Gandhi could choose to clean latrines, and Thomas More could voluntarily wear a hair shirt, this experience won't kill me."

Psychological Analysis:
"Now when Uncle Conrad likens himself to the assassinated Mahatma, the apostle of India, that is mere hubris. But when he compares himself to England's greatest Catholic martyr, a man of saintly honour if ruthless conviction, this is truly weird."
- Robert Fisk, The Independent



Mitigating Factor:
Has a sense of humour – and until October 2013 he's gonna need one.